Work Text:
Nie Mingjue woke up—or more likely, was torn out of his desperately needed sleep—by someone stomping through their living room and hallway. The loud footsteps sounded like a sailor was trying to dance on a shaky boat. The eventual bang echoing through the walls showed that the person in question had arrived in the bathroom. Another clinking noise coming from said bathroom led Nie Mingjue to the conclusion that it was more likely a drunken sailor instead of a shaky boat.
It looked like he was going to behead his beloved Didi tonight.
With a groan, Nie Mingjue turned around in his bed, pressing his face into his pillow accompanied by a long sigh before he gathered enough energy to swing his legs out of his bed. The bright red numbers on his alarm clock felt like they were burning his eyeballs. He was forcefully blinking his eyes to keep them open. 04:07. Fucking 4 am. Was he fucking serious?!
With his balance still kind of asleep, he made his way to the bathroom to keep some long silky hair out of some disgusting vomit. Huaisang had called him two hours ago to get him home from Jiang Cheng’s twenty-second birthday party since he didn’t have enough money for a taxi and was too drunk to walk home. So of course Da-ge has to come to get him. His Didi couldn’t have just asked his friends for money, obviously, because... Nie Mingjue did, in fact, not know why Huaisang hadn’t just done that but instead woke his brother at two in the morning.
“The others wanna stay ‘til mo’ning. I’m tryin’ ‘o be more responsible here, Da-ge”, he had said.
More responsible his ass.
Now he had to take care of the consequences of a party without even having had the fun of being there. And Nie Mingjue would have liked celebrating Jiang Cheng’s birthday. He was Huaisang’s friend and therefore hang out at their apartment a lot. They had chatted with each other more often. And when his Didi and their friends were trying to drink each other under the table, Jiang Cheng would be the only one left with Nie Mingjue to not pass out, which lead to them more often than not enjoying the quiet of the evening together. He had known him for seven or eight years now. And Jiang Cheng had grown into a very reliable and reasonable adult. Moreso, an adult that could make the slightest micro-expressions and Nie Mingjue’s heart would stop a beat.
But it had been a party with young adults in their early twenties. And Nie Mingjue was twenty-eight. Almost thirty. There was a five-year gap. He had always been Huaisang’s Da-ge who would supervise them and pay for the food or the likes. And that had always been it. It would have been weird to change that dynamic now. Besides, he knew Jiang Cheng didn’t actually enjoy clubbing and only went along with it because everyone kept insisting that it was just what people did to celebrate their birthday in their twenties – while they still could. So he didn’t want to bother him any more, to begin with.
Nie Mingjue opened his bedroom door with a sigh and made his way to the bathroom at the end of the hallway, right beside the living room. He decidedly did not turn on the light, his head was killing him already without it. The dulled groans and retching noises coming from behind the door did nothing to lift his mood. If his Didi knew he would end up vomiting the expensive alcohol into their toilet anyway, then why did he keep spending money on it?! His money!
Having reached the door, Nie Mingjue was about to grab the doorknob when he noticed it. From the corner of his eye, he could see their apartment door through the living room. Respectively, he didn’t see the door, just their stairwell outside of their apartment since the door was wide open. At four in the morning.
Nie Mingjue slowly retracted his hand from the doorknob and turned around to the door behind him leading to his Didi’s room.
If he opened this door now, the room would be empty as it was definitely his Didi who was in the bathroom, trying to fill their toilet with expensive alcohol. Right?
Their door was only open because… of some logical reason. He might have forgotten to close it when he dragged Huaisang inside. Sure. Obviously.
Completely calm, Nie Mingjue turned the doorknob and opened the bedroom door. Another retching noise behind him caused his shoulders to tense up. Now that he paid attention to it, this was not a noise of his Didi, it sounded way too deep. Stomping through the room, Nie Mingjue tore the blankets away from the human burrito in front of him and started to shake its flimsy body.
«Huaisang, Huaisang!» Nie Mingjue had forgotten all about whispering and had turned to a quiet yelling. The knowledge that he had his back turned to a potential drunk burglar was getting to him. His Didi was dead asleep. This wouldn’t do.
Nie Mingjue turned around and hurried into the hallway again, closing the door behind him. He would take care of this the old way. What did he go to the gym for if he couldn’t even get rid of a drunk burglar? He sidestepped into the living room to grab a chair - drunk didn’t mean the burglar didn’t have a knife - and held it in front of his body, the legs of the chair facing forward. Keeping his shield in place, he leaned forward to turn the doorknob around as slowly as possible. Another retching noise echoed from within the bathroom. Nie Mingjue breathed in and flexed his shoulders to psyche himself up. Lifting his leg he kicked the door open.
The door swung open. There was a scream. A purple silhouette cowering beside the toilet. A purple silhouette fell on their ass. The door swung back and closed due to the initial force of the kick.
Silence.
Nie Mingjue just stared at the closed door again. There were no follow-up noises coming from within the bathroom. Simply the ghost of a door slamming shut was vibrating through the apartment.
A relieved smile started to creep onto Nie Mingjue’s face. Okay. It was four am. He hadn’t slept well and all. But he was pretty sure he knew the face of the drunk 'burglar' vomiting in their bathroom and also that he had given this 'burglar' a key so that he could bring home drunk Huaisangs. So he put the chair down and opened the door again. The prominent smell of vomit and alcohol hit him first. The light in the bathroom was a stark contrast to the dark hallway, so his eyes needed a moment to adjust and make out more than a dark purple hoodie.
Beside their toilet sat Jiang Cheng – the position making it obvious that he has just fallen on his ass. He was in some way hugging the toilet, clinging to it like it was the only safe thing in the room. His chest was moving heavily, still trying to deal with the scare. Jiang Cheng’s eyes were torn open wide, no blinking no movement whatsoever on his pale yellowish face. He seemed too preoccupied to process the situation to control any additional muscles. The bangs usually framing his features elegantly were sticking to his slightly sweaty face. At least his short ponytail prevented his hair from getting into the vomit. The hoodie hadn’t been as lucky though, a tell-tale stain adorning its front.
Before Nie Mingjue could say or do anything, Jiang Cheng had involuntarily regained control of his body and heaved into their toilet again. He made two big steps and kneeled down beside Jiang Cheng, pushing some of the bangs further out of his face.
What for god’s sake had happened? How much did he drink to end up like this? Where did his god-like alcohol tolerance go? Perhaps Huaisang knew something? Was that the reason he had left earlier?
Nie Mingjue was rubbing circles over Jiang Cheng’s back while the latter was calming down and eventually lifted his head up again. He pushed himself back to the wall beside the toilet and leaned against it. He squeezed his eyes close for a few seconds before opening them again, not completely though, squinting at Nie Mingjue.
«Why are you in my apartment?» It didn’t sound offended, but rather confused, thus perfectly embodying Jiang Cheng’s whole facial expression. Surprisingly enough, his voice sounded rough but it wasn’t slurred.
«You are in my apartment, not the other way around», he chuckled.
«I’m not.» Jiang Cheng frowned.
«Yes, you are.»
He turned his head to investigate his surroundings. «Oh.» Shifting his attention back to Nie Mingjue, he quickly glanced at the toilet. «I’m sorry.»
«You’re good.» Nie Mingjue stood up and went to go grab a glass of water in the kitchen. When he came back, his drunk burglar hadn’t moved a bit but was simply staring into the air with a frown. He didn’t know how drunk Jiang Cheng exactly was, but he wanted to know what had happened. Trying couldn’t hurt. Perhaps him being drunk would even help.
“What happened, Jiang Cheng? You never get this drunk?” He sat down beside him and gave him the glass of water. Jiang Cheng took it carefully and took the most minuscule sip Nie Mingjue had ever seen. But there was no answer. He just kept staring into the void, his jaw muscle-flexing from grinding his teeth together. Normally he would at least get a ‘Don’t fucking ask’ or a ‘You don’t fucking need to know’. Hell, Nie Mingjue would even be happy to hear simple ‘fuck’. The atmosphere was stifling and he started to question whether it was actually something real serious.
“Is it som...”
“I..., I have..., I couldn’t.” Jiang Cheng let out a frustrated groan, which he immediately seemed to regret when his face contorted in pain and his hand reached for his temple. Even though he had struggled to talk, it couldn’t be from the alcohol as he looked pretty lucid.
Trying to get him to calm down, Nie Mingjue put a hand on his arm. “Take your time. No need to stress.”
It looked like Jiang Cheng was about to start another sentence, then he keeled over the toilet and started retching again.
While he was vomiting, Nie Mingjue excused himself and disappeared through the door. “I’ll be right back.” When he stepped through the door again, Jiang Cheng had stopped vomiting and had his arm propped up on the toilet seat, his head leaning on it. Nie Mingjue sat down beside him and nudged his arm. “Come on. Can you sit up?”
The corpse-like figure beside him groaned and lifted his head. Nie Mingjue brought his hand up to his face with a cold, wet cloth and started to gently wash away the sweat. Jiang Cheng tore his eyes open and stared at him while his face was wiped. Afterwards, he helped his kind of too sober intoxicated friend out of his shirt and gave him one of his hoodies that he had brought to the bathroom. While doing so he attempted to keep his eyes away from beautiful naked flesh and muscles. He somewhat succeeded. Somewhat.
“Thanks”, Jiang Cheng murmured with a huff once he leaned back again, almost frustrated. He looked Nie Mingjue direct into his eyes for a few seconds before averting them again, focusing on a random spot on the floor. “I” He lanced up again. “Don’t say anything shitty about this.” His voice held an unmistakable warning that sounded equally insecure as it sounded threatening.
“I would never. You know that.” He sat back down as well and just waited for the other to explain.
Jiang Cheng breathed in, his eyes roaming through the room at the same time as if he was literally searching for his words. “I.., Wen Qing has asked me to... you know.” He was gesturing wildly with his hands, irritation obvious. When he realised it didn’t help to make the evident confusion on Nie Mingjue’s face disappear, he relented. “To Fuck. She wanted to... fucking spend the night together. You know?”
Realising that it was an actual question, Nie Mingjue nodded quickly, not wanting to agitate him even more.
"And. Look, I don't fucking have anything against it. You know that. That would be impossible with my idiot brother around all the time. His presence screams 'gay' wherever he goes." He looked up, waiting for a reaction, now that he had hinted at where this was going. And even though Nie Mingjue was surprised, he kept a neutral expression. So Jiang Cheng carried on. "I tried to sleep with Wen Qing. 'Cause I thought I can just pull that 'Bi-thing' and the problem is solved. But it didn't work. It just wouldn't." Jiang Cheng's voice turned more agitated with every word he said. Nie Mingjue had the feeling the other would end up punching something. But he only leaned forward, aggressively pressing his palms into his eyeballs. Once he straightened his back out again, his gaze focused onto the floor tiles, Nie Mingjue thought the air was clear.
"When did you figure it out?" His dark voice vibrated through the silence.
"Around four years ago." Now, Jiang Cheng's voice just seemed tired.
"And what 'problem' have you been trying to solve these past four years?" He could already think of an answer.
Jiang Cheng looked up again with a frown and his mouth distorted in disgust. "I can't pull that move just because Wei Wuxian could. My parents have enough reasons to put me on a stand already. I put being gay on top of those and shit will go down. I have to take over their company. They can't have me fuck around with other men." He down at his hands which had started to tear around at the material of Nie Mingjue's hoodie. "I think I can't do this anymore. I don't know what to do." His voice was barely a whisper.
Nie Mingjue slid closer to the hunched over-body in front of him. When the other didn't react, he slid his arms around him and put his chin on Jiang Cheng's shoulder. "Jiang Cheng. You do not have to bend yourself to fit your parent's will. And I will try to help you deal with them. You aren't alone in this. Hell, half of your friends are gay anyway, they know that shit. I know that shit."
At that, Jiang Cheng lifted his head to look at him, still a faint scowl adorning his brows. He averted his eyes again. "That's easier said than done."
"I know. I do, unfortunately." He pushed himself back a little to take Jiang Cheng in completely. "But, in the end, it's the people who support you that count. And not the other way around." He pulled his legs back and stood up. Looking down at grey eyes that bore into him with their helplessness, he reached out his hand. "You shouldn't try to solve issues like that when drunk and tired. We should get some rest and find a solution tomorrow. I won't let you do this alone."
Jiang Cheng stared at the hand in front of him. Once he reached out for it and clasped his hand, Nie Mingjue had the feeling he was holding onto him as if he were his lifeline. He was ready to not disappoint him.